Do-It-Yourself with Software Tools: Hayloise's Branding Tips
Wonder what are the best programs to use to create various types of images and documents? Here's a list of the most popular packages.
| Drawing Programs |
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| Used for: |
Logo creation |
| Capability: |
Line art, solid colors, shading. Can incorporate pictures, gradients |
| Most popular programs: |
Adobe Illustrator (industry standard)
Macromedia Freehand
Corel Draw |
| Paint Programs |
|
| Used for: |
Image manipulation, photographs and pictures |
| Capability: |
Complex, full color images; special effects |
| Most popular programs: |
Adobe Photoshop (industry standard)
Corel Paint |
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| Page Layout Programs |
|
| Used for: |
Creating brochures, or documents with lots of graphics and/or a complex structure |
| Capability: |
Merging text and graphics from different sources |
| Most popular programs: |
Adobe InDesign (new industry standard)
Quark Express (previous industry standard)
Microsoft Publisher (not accepted by many commercial printers) |
| html Editing Programs |
|
| Used for: |
Creating web sites, html e-mail and newsletters |
| Capability: |
Merging text and graphics from different sources for web display |
| Most popular programs: |
Macromedia DreamWeaver
Adobe Go Live
Microsoft Front Page (not recommended) |
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| Business Document Software |
|
| Used for: |
Creating presentations, documents, letters, cover sheets, reports, and more |
| Capability: |
Word processing and/or special display effects |
| Most popular programs: |
Microsoft Powerpoint (presentations)
Microsoft Word (documents, letters, reports)
Microsoft Excel (workbooks)
Microsoft WordPad (documents)
Notepad (text-only documents) |
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With all of the programs to choose from, many of the most popular are among the best.
The simplest to use and most available usually produce outputs that are universally accepted.
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-- HayLoise |
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